Hidden Sentiment: Growing Down
by DeborahSulkin
Summary: Story 1/5. Joseph plans to take Jac on the perfect first date, but a little four-year-old gets in the way, and his date is turned upside down... literally. Jac, is not so thrilled with the date, but soon, it pays off.


She had grown up far too soon. He knew that, she deffinately did as well, not matter how hard she tried to hide the fact she had. And as a result of that, Joseph had planned to make their 'first' date an amazing one. Or, at least he tried. At first Joseph had planned a romantic meal, with candles and wine and of course, his delicious food. But all his plans were cancelled when Jac's day shift was changed to a night one, so instead Joseph had planned a picnic in the park. Once again his plans were ruined when his Goddaughter, Elle, had a school field-trip and only he could go with her. So their date had turned from romantic, to sweet, to disastrous in a few days, and now Jac Naylor stood facing one of her many fears: The fun-fair.

With excitement, Jac felt a four-year-old Elle giddily holding her hand.

"It's so big! I'm gonna' go on the roller coaster, and the tea cups, ghost train and the log flume!" She exclaimed listing off an extremely long list of rides she was going to be going on.

"Really?" Joseph smiled at the young child, whilst zipping up her pink raincoat. His hand brushed the lose strands of wavy hair that had fallen out of her two blonde braids. "You all warm?" He asked slowly and almost immediately the child nodded. "Alright, come on then." Carefully he lead them away towards the giant gates that lead to the main entrance of the fair

.

Jac could have sworn she literally saw the child's eyes light up at the sight of the fair.

"Can I go on that?" She exclaimed excitedly, pointing to a large, jungle painted ride.

A gulp came from Jac, who griped onto Elle's hand slightly tighter as she looked up at the medium/small ride (compared to the various humongous ones), which seemed to have several small children strapped into place (along with a parent or two) up at a 'large' height then being dropped at a substantial speed. Screams filled the air before being brought back up to the top height and dropped again without a pause.

"I think you are too small." Jac tried her best to avoid the ride.

"Actually." Joseph cut in, pointing a finger at the "You can ride this if you are this height" marker showing that Elle was just over the height and with her hair a little less scruffy, she would have been just the right height.

"Yay!" Jumping up and down with excitement, Elle began the que for the ride and was followed by Jac and Joseph. Jac dawdled slightly, hanging back towards a bench where she could just sit and watch the ride. "Are you coming on with me?" Elle asked, not directing the question to anyone really, just openly asking.

"Sure I am." Joseph responded and Jac smiled slightly while thinking: _He'd be a great father. _

"Not you, silly, I meant Jac!" The words echoed through Jac's mind like a horrible nightmare.

"Oh, sweetie, I don't really..." She tried to weave her way out of the ride but Elle's green puppy-dog eyes were a thing you deffinately could not say no to. A soft sigh and Jac left her uncomfortable seat on the bench that she now felt like she missed.

Once the ride had came to a stop, the operator allowed the other people to leave before loading on the rest of the people, and by people, there were just Jac, Joseph and Elle.

"Ready?" He asked, locking down the last bar (which was Joseph's).

"Yeah!" Elle exclaimed.

A slow groan and a tight shutting of the eyes made Joseph look over to the woman next to him, Jac had her fingers tightly around the bar and her knuckles white, her eyes clenched tightly.

"Are you alright?" He asked softly, waiting for her to open her eyes, but instead Jac just went a shade paler. "What's wrong?" He asked softly, his hand reaching up to Jac's and holding hers, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb soothingly.

"It's nothing." Without being able to say another word, the three were flung into the air, Elle excitedly squealing, Joseph trying his hardest to calm Jac who was now tightly crushing his hand and Jac who was in such a state of fear that she was actually unable to even scream, her teeth were cutting into her lips as she attempted not to scream. The faster they came to the now, not so small tower and without a warning a swarm of ginger, blonde and black hair matted as well of the various screams of joy, terror and excitement from Elle as the seat dropped halfway.

As the ride came to a slow holt, and the bars were lifted, Elle leaped out of her seat and attempted to plead with Joseph, who was supporting a jelly-leged, wobbly Jac, to allow her to ride again.

"Maybe later, sweetheart, there are many more rides to go on and this is just the first!" He smiled slightly and watched as Elle skipped away - keeping a reasonable distance between her and her 'guardians'.

Flying planes, shaky shack, train ride and a small roller coaster (all of which Jac had been forced to go on and the only one she had not minded was the train) later and the three were queueing for the Pirate Ship which Jac really was not looking forward to. Every second she spent in the short line, a thought passed her head: _What if it doesn't stop? What if it goes over the top and flips? What if the bar comes lose? What if Elle falls out? What if I fall out?_

The familiar soft hand held back onto hers and Jac believed that Joseph could read her mind.

"Everything is going to be fine, the ride will be fine, _we _will be fine." He reassured her, his thumb going back to it's favourite spot on her hand and beginning to rub slowly again. A small nod, and a squeeze of her hand back told Joseph she was okay, and was doing fine. It seemed that all horrible thoughts were gone (for a minute or two), but Jac, now finding herself being told to 'raise your arms' was once again panicky but not hesitating because as the instruction was given, Elle and Joseph raised their arms and her hand, still being in his, was forced into the air.

She had regreted the choice of coming now. Admitedly she thought that it would be a day where she would be the one sitting watching as Joseph made a fool of himself with a child, but she found herself being thrust upon the rides, rides in which she hated.

Now the group were sat around on a blanket that Elle's mum had packed eating the lunch Joseph had done for them.

"So, have you had a good time?" Joseph looked at Elle as the child attempted to pile as much food into her mouth as possible so she could go on the rides faster.

"Yeah, it's great!" She exclaimed. "How 'bout you, Uncle Joe, you having a good time?" She asked sweetly.

"Yeah, I'm having a great time, Darling." He replied.

"Are you Aunt Jac?" The words stopped time. Jac, _Aunt _Jac. A small smile played on her lips as she responded.

"Yeah, a great time." She genuinely said, forgetting the many traumatic experiences she had had with the rides and just focusing on the pluses. "What are you going on next, sweetie?" She asked, trying a pet name to make herself seem softer and less-like the heartless, cold, Jac Naylor. A small smile grew on Joseph's mouth and he knew that Jac was perfect. She would make a fab mother, even if Jac did not believe it herself right now.

After lunch, they went on the tea cups, which was not the brightest idea of Joseph's. As the whirling reddish pink and cream tea cup spun around, Jac's eyes shut tightly, trying to fight the nausea that was coming to her. She wanted to tell Joseph to slow down but the laughs from Elle stopped her commenting - also the very sickly feeling in her stomach.

"Faster, faster!" Elle clapped happily and it seemed as though all of the other cups had disappeared. The blurs gone and all Jac could see was the ever spinning faces of Elle and Joseph which, of course, was not helping with the nausea.

Her body jerked forward as she felt she was going to vomit, which did not help as the dizziness overwhelmed her so she speedily sat back and stayed in that position until the ride had ended.

"How'd you find that?" Joseph asked to Elle.

"I loved it!" She chirped happily.

"And how about you?" He asked Jac who was leaning into him, feeling slightly dizzy.

"It was... Ugh." Was all she said before she collapsed on a bench outside, waiting for the dizziness to stop.

"It's not that bad." Elle smiled widely sitting next to her, swinging her wellington booted feet that could not reach the floor.

Absolute panic filled Jac's mind as she, Joseph and Elle sat in one seat of the ride _Twister_. She was not panicked about the fact the car's were only a few inches away from crashing into each other, or the fact that she and Elle were crushing Joseph, the reason she was panicking was that when the ride was in reverse it _clicked_. It was not any normal click, it was a 'this ride is going to break' click, or so it was in Jac's mind. Her eyes were firmly shut and her hand clutched Joseph's. Her right arm was around Elle to make sure that when she was thrown in the opposite direction, her shoulder/arm or any other thing would not whack into the side of the car and cause her any damage.

It seemed that the first time today, Jac was not near as nervous as Joseph; as they neared the drop in the log flume he started to regret the choice of letting the four-year-old sit up front, knowing fully well that she was going to be soaking. It was not his car that they would be driving home in, soaking wet, he was panicking about, it was not even the moaning from the wet child, it would be the words her parents would have said, so, deep inside he hoped that he was able to take Elle home and have her changed before her parents even arrived home from work. For this reason, Joseph's eyes never left the arms of Jac, who were both securely holding the child in place, making sure she did not lunge forward and rock the boat or even fall out and as the drop came, he tried his best to stop the four-year-old getting wet, failing substantially.

Drawing towards the end of the day, Joseph had promised that Elle could go on two more rides, one being the ghost train and the second one being this. This monstrosity of a roller coaster _The Antelope _also known as the wooden roller coaster from hell (to Jac). It was quite a large rollercoaster, and made no loops or went upside down at any stage, however it had a hell of a drop and was really on for her life to the front metal bar (that was quite clearly demented as it would not shut properly in the first place) Jac braced herself for the first drop, her mouth tightly shut to stop herself from screaming. As soon as it reached the bottom of the hill, it turned a corner and went onto a straight path, leading towards another hill. Once again she tried to stop herself from screaming, tried being the operative word. A scream escaped her mouth that amused the two other riders and amused them for quite a while as the picture was taken in her mid scream and Joseph had insisted that they got it.

Jac was not someone who scared easily, however, with the added jumpiness of the initial thought of a roller coaster with random ghosts, she was on edge. The added comfort had to be the arm Joseph had around Jac. She was not really comfortable with it, she never was with public displays of affection (PDA) but there was a slight sense of comfort in his touch, one she was not backing away from. In the front of the 'spooky' car sat Elle, who had convinced her Uncle Joseph that she could ride all on her own but of course, Joseph was not leaving her, despite how much Jac might have wanted to.

"You okay?" He whispered in Jac's ear softly as not to scare Elle.

"Yeah." There was a slight sense of doubt in her voice.

"You aren't scared are you?" He teased her slightly. Jac went to reply, but as something popped out at the car she jumped slightly. "Here." Joseph finally decided on a way to keep her distracted and as Jac turned to look at him, he let their lips meet in a kiss. It was not a very long kiss as in a few seconds (after she had processed what was happening) Jac pulled away.

"Joseph, you know I'm not into PDA." She informed him.

"Oh come on, it's hardly public, there is just us." He re-informed her, in a know-it-all tone. His hand pulling Jac in closer and their lips meeting. Another thing jumped out of the wall and Joseph felt Jac pull against him in shock, but instead of letting their lips part, his hand went to the back of her head and softly held her there, continuing to kiss her through out the ride until Elle told them 'Ew, stop it!' and giggled.

"Well that was... interesting." Jac commented upon arriving back at her house.

"Yeah, sorry about that, it wasn't the day I had planned either, but Elle had a good time." Joseph smiled as he parked the car and helped a still shaky Jac.

"Yeah, she seemed to have a ball, it was worth it." Jac didn't bother to look at him as he gathered the take-away food from the back seat and carried it through the house.

"So, why are you so scared of the fun-fair?" Joseph asked, leaving the dinner on the table and gathering some plates from the kitchen along with some cutlery.

"Who said I was scared?" She appeared next to him, reaching up to the cupboard above his head and taking out two glasses and then getting a bottle of drink out of the fridge.

"You didn't seem too happy on the fair, and let's just say you didn't seem pleased where I told you we were going. Unless you didn't like the idea of the four-year-old tagging along..." He tried to put some pieces together.

"I didn't mind going with Elle to her school trip, she seemed to have a ball." Jac smiled softly, making Joseph smile back with a slight laugh, "What?"

"Even if you don't realise it, cold-hearted Miss. Jac Naylor, you would be a fantastic mum." He informed her, "and I love it when you smile like that." He added. A slight blush came to Jac's cheeks as she tried her hardest to lose her smile and re-enter the living room.

"Here." He followed her and put each plate and cutlery down in it's right place.

"Thanks." Jac reached over and began putting the food on hers and his plate before looking up to meet his eyes. "I think..." She paused for a minute before finishing the sentence, unsure of what she was really going to say. To stop the running train of mixed up thoughts in her head, Joseph clashed his lips with her's again and Jac could have sworn that the second he did, her mind sorted it's self out. Now she knew exactly what to say. "I think it has something to do with having no control. I can't decide the circumstances of the ride." She informed him and Joseph nodded, understanding Jac's need to have her control and power.

"I get it." He smiled softly, "But how did it feel to be a kid for the day?" He laughed slightly and she gave a very un-Jac-like laugh in return.

"It was... Kind of good really." She smiled.

"Good."

_A.N._ So there it is, read and review. I am thinking of making this a series so please tell me if you'd be interested. The series would be Jac and Joseph (Elle in from time to time) and some other Holby City characters and maybe even a Naylor-Byrne baby? :)


End file.
